Not Good Enough For Truth In Cliche
by GraceandConnie
Summary: By Grace. Zoey moves to a new school and makes a new friend, but can she win the heart of the boy she truly wants?
1. Friends And Alibis

The hardest thing a kid could ever go through is moving schools. You have no friends, no one to talk to. If you get lost, you're fucked until someone offers to help you find your way, which hardly any one does. Bunking class seems the easiest option, but in a way it's also the hardest because you're faced with a detention and you've made a bad impression on the people you should be trying to make a good impression on. If nobody offers to help you and you don't want to bunk, then you have to find your way to the office. For all you know, the office could be on the other side of the school, which is why im glad my parents dropped me in early. They wanted to talk to the headteacher before the day started.

We sat opposite Miss Stark in her office, talking about ways to make friends. I didn't necessarily care about making friends as of yet, i just wanted to get through the first day. whether i fit in with the other kids or not, which i probably didn't because even in my last school, me and my friends were the outcasts because we 'like music that makes ears bleed.'  
This school didn't have a uniform, but there was a dress code. You had to wear something sensible, which I didn't have a problem with, because i only wear band t-shirt's and Converse. We were allowed to wear nail varnish and make up too, it was like a dream. In this school i could be who I wanted. In my last school everyone looked the same, dressed the same. The boys weren't even allowed to wear shorts. Not even if it was scorching hot.

Miss Stark pulled me out of my train of thought and handed me my new books and my planner.  
'That's every thing you need Zoey. Your timetable and your map are in your planner so you won't get lost.' I felt a flush of relief come over me at the thought of not having to rely on total strangers to help me find my way. 'You have English first with Miss Diamond. It is an all boys English set as the girls was simply over flowing with girls of similar grades to you.'  
I didn't mind, I don't know anyone here, so who I sit with and who I'm in the same class as doesn't really bother me. I get along better with boys anyway. Miss Stark thanked my parents for coming in and they shook hands. As we left her room, my mum gave me a huge hug.  
'Oh Zoey! I'm proud of you for putting on a brave face for your first day here! You'll fit in just fine!'  
'Thanks.. mum..' I said pulling out of her embrace.  
'Oh Zoey did i embarrass you? I'm sorry honey.'  
'It's fine mum, i'm fine, you can go now.'  
'Okay if you're sure honey. Just call me if something happens and i'll come and get you straight away okay?'  
'Yes mum, please, just both of you, go.'  
'Okay, we love you! Good luck!' She called as she disappeared round the corner. Dad patted me on the shoulder and winked at me, and hurried after my mother.

Putting my books in my bag, I started walking to my first class. Realising I didn't know where I was going, I fumbled around for my planner and went to the page with the map. 'Room 25..' I muttered to myself, searching over the map to find the room. 'Room 25 huh?' Said a deep voice from behind me. 'That's Miss Diamond's room right?'  
'What? Uh.. yeah.. um..'  
'You sure that's where you're meant to be going? I've got her now, and we're an all boys set.'  
'Yeah im sure.. Miss Stark said that's where..'  
'Well if Miss Stark said it, then it must be right.' He said interrupting me and grinning wildly. 'Right this way.'  
'Uh.. Thanks.. I guess..' I was so confused. I didn't have a clue who this guy was. I realised I hadn't even looked at him.  
I quickly looked him up and down. He had brown hair that was so dark it was practically black. He had amazing bright blue eyes and a great complexion. His skin was so perfect you'd think the boy had skipped puberty, which im hoping for his sake he hasn't because i'm 15 and he's got to be at least that to be in the same year as me. He was wearing black jeans and Coverse and a Metallica tshirt. I looovvee Metallica. 'Nice shirt.' I said, breaking the on going silence. He looked down at me (yes he was very, VERY tall) and smiled politely.  
'Likewise.' I glimpsed down at myself after completely forgetting what I was wearing. It was my Guns N' Roses top. I smiled to myseld, glad to have chosen to wear this.

'So why are you in an all boys set?' He asked.  
'According to Miss Stark, the class of girls with the around the same grades as me was already full, so I was put with you.' I said bluntly on the verge of a huge yawn.  
'Don't sound too excited about it..' He said sarcastically. I frowned.  
'Sorry i didn't mean to..' But he interrupted me again.  
'Hey you don't have be sorry. I'd understand if you're nervous, what with it being your first day and all.' I wanted to yell "I'M NOT NERVOUS!" in his face, but I knew he was my only chance at having a friend at this point, so instead I just nodded quickly and let out a deep sigh. He stopped and turned to face me. I almost walked straight into him. I looked at him with a confused expression and he smiled what could have been a nervous smile, but I was meant to be the nervous one here. 'Why did you stop?' I asked curiously.  
'We're here.' He said smirking at me.  
'Oh fuck, sorry. I'm so stupid.' I said, obviously blushing. Fucking hell, I must have 'MORON' written across my forehead. He just chuckled and put his hand on my arm.  
'Hey..' he said staring me in the eyes. 'I get a pretty tough time here what with the clothes I wear and the music I listen to. Some people even say that my music makes their ears bleed.' He smiled again and I smiled back. I realised how alike we are, although I didn't know enough about him to make a proper judgement. 'Seeing as we both like that kind of stuff, I just thought i'd warn you that in there, is a bunch of jerks and that you shouldn't listen to them.' I realised i'd been staring at him and i'd hardly listened to what he'd said, but I got the jist of it. I nodded and reassured him that i'm used to it because the people at the old school did that too.

With a pat on the arm, he walked into the classroom with me following behind.  
'Look!' said a boys voice. 'Emo fag's got another emo fag friend! But this one's a girl! I think.' Everyone started pointing and laughing at us like we were circus freaks. I searched around and found the boy who's voice i'd heard.  
I walked over to him and took his excersize book out of his hands. I read his name out loud.  
'James Benjamin Bruce..' i said, throwing his book on the table and resting my hand on it. 'So James Benjamin Bruce. What did you say i was? Oh yes, Emo Fag. Well give me a second.' I made a point of looking him up and down. He was wearing Nike trainers and a tracksuit with a pair of headphones resting round his neck. I gave him a spiteful look. 'Judging by the way you look, i'd say you were more of a "fag" than I am, which by the way, is a dreadful stereotype and makes me question your own sexuality. Why don't you take the piss out of someone, who has a fuck to give about you and your knock off Skull Candy's. I don't like your attitude, and I most certainly don't like you.'  
He looked at me and blushed slightly, but still tried to grasp onto the reputation he'd built himself whilst everyone else in the room were laughing and making 'ooooh' sounds. Before he could say anything back to me, I turned quickly round and marched to the only seat left in the room.  
The one next to the guy i'd walked here with.


	2. The Webs We Weave

I smiled sheepishly at him and made too much eye contact, although that wasn't just my fault. It was his too.  
'Welcome to the class Zoey, although it is unusual to have a girl here with us, i'm sure you'll do just fine.' Everyones attention turned to Miss Diamond at the front of the classroom. I flashed a quick smile and noticed the whole class was staring at me, just like they had done when I 'spoke' to that asshole James. I covered my face in my thick red fringe, and spent the rest of the lesson listening to music like I always had done, except this time, I kept having sneaky glances at the guy next to me. He was extremely hot, and I realised suddenly that I didn't know his name, and he didn't know mine. He caught me staring and smiled at me again. I grinned awkwardly back and turned away, wiping at my mouth incase of any subconcious dribble caused by unknowingly gaping at him. I decided i'd make a formal introducion to him after the lesson.

The bell rang and the other pupils rushed out of the classroom as quickly as they possibly could. I, however, wasn't so fast. I was in no rush to go anywhere, and I needed to figure out where my next lesson was and how on earth I was going to get there without getting lost. I spotted my location in the map and put the planner away. 'Great.' I mumbled. 'Maths.' With a sigh, I flung my bag over my shoulder and walked out of the classroom. I turned in the direction of the maths corridor and began to walk when someone cleared their throat and a familiar voice said 'I don't believe we've introduced ourselves.' I turned around and faced the boy who i'd befriended. 'Well i'm..' i began, but again, he interrupted me.  
'Zoey. I know. Miss Diamond said your name at the beginning of the class and i saw you write it on your excersize book. Nice handwriting.'  
'Thanks.'  
'I'm Danny by the way.'  
'Nice to meet you Danny. Well I have to go to lessons now, so I guess i'll see you around?'  
'Wait, what lesson do you have? I'll walk you there, we can talk on the way.'

On the way to my lesson, we compared timetables. We have all the same classes together except from Maths and Tech. I do Food Tech, he does Graphics. He told me about all of the teachers. The nice ones, the not so nice ones and the easy ones. He told me stories about some of them, until we got to my classroom.  
'Well you'd better get going' I said to him as we reached the door. 'Thank you for walking me, i'd have been more lost than a snail with no trail.' Oh for fuck sake Zoey, really, that was THE worst joke ever. Surprisingly, he chuckled and put a stray strand of hair back in its place.

'Well good luck Zoey. I'll come and get you from here at the end of the lesson, don't go anywhere okay?'  
'No no, you don't have to do that, i'm fine on my own.' He locked his eyes on mine, making it impossible to look away.  
'No one is fine on their own on their first day. Trust me, i'd know. I'll be here at 11 on the dot. Do not go anywhere unless i'm here okay?'  
'Okay.' I agreed, and with a quick wave and I walked into the classroom.


	3. Situations

It was such a shit lesson. I didn't listen at all. I didn't feel the need to. I put a headphone in and leaned on the table. I decided that then would be a good time to text mum and tell her that I was fine incase i got home and she thought i'd died or something. 'Hi mum, made a new friend, really nice, got good lessons, doing fine, see you later x'  
I quickly sent it and put my phone away and sat watching the clock. When 11 finally came and the bell rang, I did a huge sigh of relief and waited outside the door. I found myself waiting for a while. I glanced at the clock on the wall opposite me. 11:10.  
So it hadn't been long, only 10 minutes, break finishes as 11:25 so I wasn't in a hurry. I decided to check my planner to see what I had next. Science. If I headed to Science then I would see him and he would explain why he never turned up.  
But that's just the problem.  
When I got to my Science class after several minutes of trying and almost failing to finding my way, he wasn't there either. I frantically searched the room over a few more times, hoping I just hadn't seen him, but no matter how many times I looked, he wasn't there.  
Before I could look over the room 245352453 million more times and worry myself even more, my new science teacher called me over.  
'Hello. You must be Zoey.'  
'Um yes.'  
'What's wrong Zoey? You look troubled.'  
'Oh uh, nothing. It's just, my friend, he was supposed to meet me before but he never turned up, and he's meant to be here but, he's uh, not.' She herself looked over the room.  
'Do you mean Danny?'  
'Yes.'  
'Do not worry my dear. He's always late. Don't rely on him making deadlines, he never does.' and with that she turned to the board. I noticed that she had layed out the excersize book's in the right place for each student, and I looked at each one until I found my own. I saw that the book in the place next to mine was Danny's and I let out a small sigh of relief. After a long while of waiting, I looked at the clock again.  
11:55. Half an hour of the lesson had gone by and i still had another half an hour. He should definitely have been here by now.  
Something must have been wrong. No matter what this new teacher said, to me he looked like a man of his word. When he said he was going to meet me outside at exactly 11, I could tell that he meant it. I let another 15 minutes float by.  
Just as I was beginning to slowly fall asleep, a strong female voice said my name from the front of the class room, which i knew wasn't the teacher. I looked up drowsily, expecting it to be someone stupid like my mother, marching into my classroom telling me I had to come home because my room was untidy or something utterly ridiculous like that, but instead I was greeted by a short, chubby lady in her 30's wearing a pink thin overal thing over her casual clothes. I watched as she asked the teacher who Zoey was, and the teacher pointed to me. The nurse waddled over to me and whispered 'Zoey dear, you need to come with me. I was told to come and get you. You'll need your bag sweetie.'  
Moving rather like a zombie, I scooped up my belongings, shoved them into my bag, flung it over my shoulder and followed the nurse out into the hallway.  
'What happened? Who told you to come and get me?'  
'A young boy named Danny. Lonely one he is. Looks as though you're his only friend.' her tone was too friendly. I knew she was only trying to be nice, but she was still pissing me off. I don't need details, i need facts.  
'Why? What's happened?' We turned a corner and she came to a halt.  
'See for yourself sweet.' She said, sounding rather like a Granny when you ask her whats for dinner. I was so shocked by what i saw, I went light headed and became temporarily blinded. I felt chubby hands clawing at me and I didn't know what was happening.  
Then everything went black.


	4. The Guillotine

I woke up on a hard, cold bed. All of my limbs felt heavy. I tried lifting my head but it just hurt and I went light headed and lay back down again.  
'Zoey?' Said a deep, vaguely familiar voice.  
'Danny?'  
'Yeah, it's me.'  
'What happened?'  
'The nurse brang you to see me and you passed out.'  
I tried lifting my head again. I couldn't look at him because my head just hurt to much and I was blinded by the pain. He saw me struggling to look at him and walked over to me. He sat me up and propped me up against the pillows. I rubbed my eyes to clear the mist in my eyes from the light headedness. When I could see properly again, I turned to look at him, to be faced with the same thing that had freaked me out so much I had passed out.

I let out a huge gasp and my hand flew to my mouth.  
'Danny!' I shouted loudly, staring at his bare chest. 'Your.. Your.. Your..'  
'I know.' He said and looked away.  
'How.. How did you..?'  
'You know James?'  
'How could I not?' I said, rolling my eyes.  
'He was talking about you when I was on my way to meet you. I told him to be quiet, he didn't know what he was talking about. He doesn't know you at all...'  
'Yes but neither do you. You don't have to stick up to him for me, I can look after myself, Danny.' I said sternly. 'I know, I know. It's just you don't have anyone, I don't have anyone, but now you're here. We're sort of in this together, y'know?'  
'Well there's no need to go and get beaten up for my sake, you only met me this morning.' I laughed softly.  
'I know, I'm sorry.'  
'Don't be sorr, but I can sort James out myself. I've been at this school for about 3 hours and I've already put him in his place once. He doesn't bother me.'  
'No, but he bothers me.' I looked over his body. 3 dead straight lines were just scabbing over across him cheek, he had a black eye on his left eye and his chest was covered in red marks, scratches, cuts, bruises and the occasional fist print. He was standing quite close to the side of my bed. He gently flicked his dark hair to the side and looked down at me.  
'Do they hurt?' I barely whispered without taking my eyes off of the wounds on his chest.  
'I don't know.' He said. 'I haven't tried touching them.'  
'Well touch them, see if they hurt or not.'  
'No I'm scared I might press too hard and pull open the cuts again.' I sighed.  
'Sit here.' I said, shuffling over and patting the spot beside me. He sat down sorely and turned to face me.  
'I'll be gentle. Just tell me if they hurt.' I said, lifting a finger to carefully trace the bruises and cuts.

I traced the outline of a fist print and he squirmed a little. I moved on to the next one and the next one. They all hurt him. I moved his arm and saw a huge purple and green bruise on his hip.  
'Oh my god. How did he do this?'  
'I don't remember.' He said plainly. He must have known, it wasn't very long ago, but I decided to let it go. I felt around this bruise. It was swollen and as I touched it, Danny loudly sucked in air.  
'Be careful!' He exclaimed.  
'Sorry.' I replied. 'Where's the nurse?'  
'Coffee break or something.' I looked at the still bleeding cuts on his chest and got up off of the bed.  
'Lay down there.' I demanded, pointing to where I'd just been laying.  
'Why?' He asked.  
'Just do it, I'll be back in a second.' And with that I disappeared round the corner.

I felt a little light-headed but I was too busy rummaging through the nurses resources to stop and wait for it to pass. I found bandages, disinfectant, cloth's and plasters. I put it all in a small box and carried it to Danny.  
'What are you..?'  
'Shh, this is going to sting okay?' He nodded his answer and lie back. I opened the bottle and wet one of the cloth's. I glanced at Danny's chest to see how many cuts there were. There were actually quite a lot but I didn't have a clue how they got there. As far as I was aware, fists aren't sharp.

I gently pressed a cloth onto the first cut and slowly wiped and dabbed at it.  
Danny gasped really loudly. 'Fucker!' He shouted. I giggled.  
'I told you.' I teased. He was in a lot of pain and I could tell he underestimated my words when I said it was going to sting.  
I dried the cut and put a plaster on it seeing as it was relatively small. The one next to it was bigger than the first and I frowned slightly. Danny saw me frowning.  
'What is it?'  
'Danny how did you get cut?'  
'What do you mean?'  
'Well you can't get this many cuts, this big, with just fists.' He shot me a look to say damn you and your fucking detective thinking.  
'One of them wasn't just punching me.' I waited for him to finish but he didn't so I prompted him.  
'Danny. What did they use?' He frowned and sighed.  
'One of them had glass shards.' He said looking away.


	5. Reverse This Curse

'W..What? I don't understand..'  
'Zoey forget it, pretend it never happened okay?' I was fuming.  
'No I'm not going to fucking forget it! It did happen okay? It did happen.'  
'Zoey look at... Zoey look at me.'  
'What.' I said bluntly, looking him in the eye.  
'I don't want you to worry about it okay? It's over now and it was nothing.'  
'Shut the fuck up Danny. It certainly was not nothing and I don't want to hear another word from you.' And I began to walking to the door.  
'Where are you going? ZOEY!' I turned back to face him and saw he was walking towards me with a limp.  
'Sit back on the bed, now.' I said sternly.  
'But where are you..'  
'SIT ON THE FUCKING BED NOW!' I shouted, interrupting. He obeyed and sat back down with head in his hands. 'Lift up your trouser leg.'  
'But..'  
'Do it.' He slowly lifted up his right trouser leg, flinching as he did. 'Keep lifting.' I said when he stopped, and he did. A trail of blood began to show and got thicker and fresher as he lifted the material. When it couldn't go any higher I still hadn't seen where it had came from.  
'Danny take of your trousers.'  
'What? NO!'  
'WELL WOULD YOU PREFER IT IF SOME OLD WOMAN DID IT INSTEAD OR WOULD YOU JUST LIKE TO TRUST ME AND LET ME LOOK AFTER YOU.' He looked at me and sighed. I didn't exactly want to see him in his underwear, nor did I want to see any blood but I know that if I'd hurt my leg I wouldn't even take my trousers off for my mum, never mind some random school nurse.  
'This is so weird.' He said. He took them off and sat back on the bed. I used another cloth and wet it with the disinfectant, wiping away the thick blood trail from his leg, following it up his leg to where it was coming from. Right at the top of his leg was a blood pool around a horrible looking wound. I gently wiped around it, cleaning up the blood pool. He began to flinch as I got closer.  
'Keep still.'  
'Sorry. But it really hurts, more than the other ones.'  
'Well keep still for two seconds and I'll be able to see why.' He sighed and watched me closely. 'Danny why am I doing this and not the nurse? Coffee breaks don't usually last this long.' He looked at me guiltily. 'What?' I asked.  
'She told me to go and get her as soon as you wake up to make sure you're okay but I didn't.'  
'Well why didn't she see to your injuries?'  
'I didn't tell her about them. She only saw the ones on my face and said they weren't severe enough for her to have to do anything, so she let me stay here with you whilst she went and spoke to someone.' I looked him in the eye.  
'You should have told her Danny, you could have got infected if I hadn't cleaned them, and why were you shirtless if you didn't show them to her?'  
'They were hurting and I wanted to look how bad they were, I didn't expect you to wake up yet.'  
'Oh.. Oh my god Danny. The cut in your leg has glass embedded in it. Don't move I'll be back in a second.' And I ran back to where the nurse keeps her stuff. I found some tweezers and some more cloth and I ran back to him.

'Lie back. This is probably going to hurt. A lot.' He nodded and lay down, bracing himself. I dabbed around the area again and pinched the glass shard with the tweezers. 'On the count of three. One, two.. three.' And I pulled on the shard. It didn't come out as easily as I'd hoped and it was bigger than I suspected but at least it was out. I poured disinfectant over a clean cloth and cleaned the steadily bleeding wound and put pressure on it. I wrapped his leg in bandage and tied it tightly so that it wouldn't come off.  
'All done.'  
'Thanks.'  
'Uh.. Danny you put your trousers and shirt back on now..'  
'Oh yeah.' I laughed and sat on the bed smiling.  
'You'd better go and get the nurse now, she's been waiting a while.' He nodded at me and smiled briefly before putting his clothes back on and walking to get the nurse.

Whilst he was gone to get her, I put all of the things back in their rightful place and wiped up some of the blood he'd left in drops around the room. I lay back on the bed just in time for them both to walk back in. The nurse checked me over and said I was fine, but said that we'd probably had enough for one day so we could go home. Relief.


End file.
